Back on Track

Wow - I haven't posted in a long time. But I feel like I'm back on track now. I've decided not to let all the stress I've been feeling lately affect my writing. So I've been writing my morning pages, and making notes and working on the beginning of "What Luck." I feel productive again.
Today, I started to train the Dragon Naturally Speaking program. I'm still not sure if the computer has enough memory for it to work right, but I'm taking my chances. I didn't want to wait any longer. Ian helped me get started. I did a 14-step on-screen tutorial, and I got through it OK. The program is cool, but it's not easy. I can see that it might take awhile for me to get comfortable with using the program, and to "train" it to recognize my voice. I've already learned that I have to be very careful with my diction and pronunciation. I used to be more articulate, when I was in drama and chorus in high school, and when I took radio communications classes years ago in college. But I'm not as used to reading things aloud, as I used to be. Also, my sinuses have gotten worse over the years, so my voice has a nasal quality. So when I read the tutorial sentences aloud, the program didn't type out the text as accurately as I hoped it would. For example, one sentence I had to read was, "Harriet, I hear you got a new job." I thought I read it pretty clearly, but the program "heard" it as "Harry and I hear you got a new job." So it's kind of frustrating. I'll just have to be more careful when reading aloud, and I need to practice working with the program as often as I can. But it's worth it. It's really amazing what this program can do. This is the first time I've used it, and I know that the more I work with it, the more I'll improve. I know it will save a lot of wear and tear on my neck, shoulder, and arm. And hopefully, I'll be more productive. I'll post ongoing reports on my progress. And I'll post more reports on my progress with writing "What Luck." I'll do my best to stay on track from now on.

Frustrations/Challenges

I haven't posted in over a week. There's been something wrong with our computer and it's been hard for me to get online without the computer being extremely s-l-o-w or freezing up. Ian's been working on it, trying to fix whatever the problem is, and I guess whatever he's been doing has worked - tonight is the first time I've been able to be online without any problems so far.
Because I'm not computer-savvy, I can get very annoyed and frustrated whenever there's some kind of problem. I only know how to do basic stuff - go online, send and receive e-mails, and use a word processing program. That's about it. As long as it's all going well, I'm fine. But I admit I don't have much patience whenever I encounter something I don't know how to do, or whenever there's a problem with the computer that I don't understand.
The current problem seems to have started when we installed the new Dragon Naturally Speaking program. It's possible that this computer doesn't have enough memory to run the program along with everything else, so we might have to get more memory. Ian has installed more memory in the past, and it has made the computer run faster and better, so more memory might be the solution.
Right now, I'm reluctant to start using the Dragon program, because I'm not sure if or how it will affect the computer. I'm afraid the computer could crash, and it could be a costly hassle to repair it. I've still been writing, in my morning pages journal, my writing prompt notebook, and my notebook for my current project, What Luck. But I haven't been writing as often as I want to, and I know that I could write better and faster by learning to use the Dragon program and becoming adept at it. I know I should just try it, and see what happens. If the computer goes down, hopefully Ian will be able to fix it. I wouldn't be writing anything important with the program while I'm learning how to use it anyway. So I've just got to try it.
I need to see these frustrations as challenges instead, and not let them get to me, or get in the way of my writing. I know that every writer has frustrations and challenges to face. And I know that overcoming them will make me a better writer, and will make my accomplishments seem even greater.
So this is just a minor hurdle, that I will get over, on my way to the finish line.
(And I've finished this post with no computer problems - yay!)